GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

I wonder, sometimes, about the people I'm around all day, and what they know or don't know. So, to gauge the...depth of knowledge of my fellow autochthones, I have some simple questions below. Anyone who has ever read a book, or who graduated from high school after the invention of the lightbulb, should be able to answer these questions...with ease, I might add. There are no "trick" questions, and the correct answer is among the options I have provided (doncha love multiple choice?)

Pass 'em around, annoy your friends, use my questions to learn about people you know, but, above all, have fun.

Ready?

1) What does "dubious" mean?
a) nauseous
b) on fire
c) doubtful
d) asleep

2) What is a "schema"?
a) a foot fungus
b) a fish from France
c) a type of match
d) a plan

3) Of the following, which is the coldest?
a) liquid carbon dioxide
b) liquid nitrogen
c) liquid helium
d) liquid water

4) Who is Prime Minister of Canada, as of 10:29 AM MST on 27 JAN 10?
a) Stephen Harper
b) Michael Ignatief
c) Gordon Campbell
d) Trent Lott

5) What US state(s) lies directly south of British Columbia, Canada?
a) Washington state
b) Idaho
c) Montana
d) all of the above

6) Who was Atlas?
a) The giant who held the whole world on his shoulders
b) The greatest gangster of all time
c) An author
d) A hair dresser in Des Moines, Iowa

7) Has horror writer Stephen King ever been hit by a car?
a) yes
b) no

8) Whose first famous movie role was "the Man With No Name"?
a) John Wayne
b) Clint Eastwood
c) James Arness
d) Sylvester Stallone

9) Which of these is the largest US state?
a) California
b) Alaska
c) Minnesota
d) Arizona

10) Which of these is the smallest US state?
a) New Hampshire
b) Tennessee
c) Idaho
d) Rhode Island

11) Which of these movies has won an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year?
a) "Silence of the Lambs" starring Anthony Hopkins
b) "Underworld" starring Kate Beckinsdale
c) "Grindhouse", written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
d) "The Book of Eli" starrig Denzel Washington

12) Which of these ways of watching a movie at home was available for people to buy first?
a) VHS format videotapes
b) laser discs
c) digital video discs (DVDs)
d) movies on demand

13) What sport would you be watching if you were at a Seattle Thunderbirds game?
a) professional football
b) professional baseball
c) amateur/ major junior ice hockey
d) amateur basketball

14) Soldiers from which of these countries entered Berlin, Germany, first in 1945?
a) Canada
b) Russia/ the Soviet Union
c) Chile
d) Norway

15) Of these ways to measure the length of something, which is the longest?
a) a mile
b) a kilometer
c) an inch
d) a yard

Once you're done, send me your results and we'll see how well y'all did.

Why would I know US or Canadian geography (or sports teams for that matter)?
I live in the Southern hemisphere!

Ditto that, made worse by the fact that I choose to largely ignore the existence of television and most movies.

Me too. Though I did like Avatar for the cinematography.

What's avatar?

This explosion of light and colour I saw at Readings last night.
Also known as "Dances with Smurfs".

Last movie I recall going to was peter jacksons king kong.

I liked the original, but the new (newish?) version... after three hours I just wanted them to shoot the damn monkey so we could all go home.

Rock on, sisters! Kiwi pride!!

Orright then...What's the capitol of New Zealand?

What is the name of the principle evergreen tree species imported to New Zealand from other countries?

The indigenous peoples of New Zealand have strong ethnic kinship with the indigenous peoples of what US state?

New Zealand has a nickname, and that nickname has to do with clouds. What's is the full term?

How many eyes does a tuatara lizard have?

What's the tallest mountain in New Zealand?

A sporting reference more applicable to New Zealand...if you're watching the Tykes play, what sport is it (extra points if you can tell me if it's professional or amateur)?

Commandoes from what country sank the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, in New Zealand's territorial waters?

Another sports question...what do many New Zealand athletic teams do just before commencing play, to challenge and intimidate the other team?

A question very near and dear to our hearts...which country has more transsexual prostitutes, New Zealand or the United States?

Movies anyone? Has a New Zealand born actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor within the last ten years? Who?

Which country is closer to the Antarctic continent, New Zealand or Argentina?

Where is the world is the geographical location with the longest non-compounded or contrived place name located?

Of the ex-British Empire countries (nowadays called Commonwealth Countries), which one first granted full voting privileges to women? In fact, this same place was the first sovereign nation to grant full, unrestricted voting rights to women of any country in the world.

What is the name of the body of water that separates Australia and New Zealand?

Tallyho, ladies.

A few of those questions are wrong - for instance Aotearoa is an official name, not a nickname. We also have a capital - capitol is an American thing.

So which ones are wrong...c'mon, sort me out. And by the way, I never mentioned Aetaroa...I'd never heard the word before you posted it, and I had to look it up.

Aotearoa - translation - 'land of the long white cloud'

We have two official languages too

We're prolly closer to canadian indian tribes than american - that's american trivia, not new zealand.

The tuitara's 'third eye' is vestigal, not a true eye.

The rainbow warrior was sunk when moored - not in territorial waters (term means something different here).

Athletic teams generally do not do the haka - that's a rugby thing mostly. Though it may be done at large events.

New zealand and argentina both have protectorates.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the answer to itself? or Waipukarau? or Hawkes Bay? or the North Island/Te Ika-a-Māui? or New Zealand/Aotearoa? It's kinda confusing.

As for which trees we import - I wouldn't have a clue - if it were wood then spruce or fir, or something like that, but I've never seen a tree unloaded from a boat.

Aotearoa - translation - 'land of the long white cloud'
I thought that "The Land of the Long White Cloud" was a nickname. Hey, I've learned something new!

We're prolly closer to canadian indian tribes than american - that's american trivia, not new zealand.
I was told by a very officious looking chap in Hawaii that the aboriginal peoples of the Hawaiian islands had come from New Zeland many years ago. I can see similarities of appearance between Maoris and ethnic Hawaiians.

The rainbow warrior was sunk when moored - not in territorial waters (term means something different here).
Those waters are the territory of New Zealand, are they not?

Athletic teams generally do not do the haka - that's a rugby thing mostly. Though it may be done at large events.
I've seen ice hockey, basketball, netball, and polo teams preform the haka. I've also seen a team of age 10 to 12 year old ice hockey players from New Zealand do the haka is a podunk international hockey tournament, of no special significance other than that the team was from New Zealand.

New zealand and argentina both have protectorates.
My bad...I should have specified mainland, non-protectorate lands.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the answer to itself? or Waipukarau? or Hawkes Bay? or the North Island/Te Ika-a-Mui? or New Zealand/Aotearoa? It's kinda confusing. 'Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu' is the answer I sought. It's a low hill in the Southern Hawkes' Bay region of North Island. Although, since this is an unofficial name, I don't know if it counts or not. Once again, I am mistaken (serves me right for trying to be El Brainiaco about a country I've never visited). The longest official place name is the full, official name of Bangkok, Thailand (oh Shangri-La of SRS), which you'll understand if I don't record here, for sake of brevity.

As for which trees we import - I wouldn't have a clue - if it were wood then spruce or fir, or something like that, but I've never seen a tree unloaded from a boat.
Once more, I should have worded my query more precisely...in the 1950s and 60s, the New Zealand Firest Service was very interested in foreign evergreen tree species which would thrive in New Zealand's unique botanical conditions. To that end, tons of radiata pine seeds were imported from Canada and elsewhere

Ok - ancestral, Hawaii, yup.

We have terretorial waters, economic exclusion zones, and inland waters - it was in our territorial waters, fair enuff.

In this part of the world athletics means track and field - those others are field sports.

Taumata... as it's called for short is the official name (the full length version is, though Taumata is acceptable too).

The present tense for the trees threw me out - we learned to clone them and haven't had to import radiata for decades.

Actually, the Maori legends speak of their original homeland being called 'Hawaiiki'. A lot of evidence suggests that the Maori originated from what is now known as Hawaii.

The Kiwi football ("soccer") team also performed the Haka at the Beijing Olympic games in 2008. The teams that play in the Olympic are U23+3 (which means, all players but three are under 23 years old, that is, not in their prime yet).

mDNA evidence (as per Cavalli-Sforza) indicated that all Polynesian peoples comes from a common group of about 10,000 individuals who left the island now known as Taipei about 3000 BCE.

They split North and South. So the similarities between Hawaii and the NZ Maoris are likely derived from common ancestry, not that one came from the other.

The linguistic evidence suggests this pattern (-1500 = 1500 BCE; +500 = 500 CE):



Considering these migrations were done en masse using reed rafts, it must have been a sight to see, those 10,000 people, men, women and children, leaving Taipei in about three thousand rafts.

Some suggest they make it all the way to South America. The genetic evidence is not there, though.